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Sep. 11, 2009
State horseshoe tourney at Tonopah
By DON McDERMOTT
TONOPAH -- For the sixth consecutive year, this Nye County community hosted the Nevada State Horseshoe Pitching Championships at the Joe Friel Sports Complex. There were 34 entries; leading the local contingent were Jim Olpin, who finished second in Class B, and Bill Dowers, second in Class C. A former resident, Matt Jose, now of Las Vegas, was first in Class A. Olpin won five of seven matches in the round-robin event, throwing 24.29 percent ringers on 280 shoes. Lee Houston was first at 7-0, 26.43, and Bryan Dawson was third at 4-3, 21.43. Dowers was 6-2 with 14.38 percent ringers on 320 shoes. Elaine Perry was the winner at 7-1, 21.88, and Richard Wilson was third at 6-2, 12.81. Jose won seven of nine matches in Class A, as he threw 30.28 percent ringers on 360 shoes. Nancy Salazar, the defending champion, was 6-3, 26.39, and third at 5-3, 32.19, was Drew Salazar. In the Elders Division, Tom McQueen was the winner, going 6-0 in the double round-robin division. He finished with a tournament high 64.63 percent ringers, on 236 throws. Virgil Bergen, the defending champion, was 4-2 at 40.51. Shawn Koepnick (8-0, 17.19) was the JRB winner for the second straight year. Chad Hyatt, a world horseshoe pitching tournament competitor and currently the Nevada state horseshoe pitching association president and regional director, won the men's title; he was 6-0 with 50.71 percent ringers. Hyatt, 37 and a former resident of Indianapolis now living in Las Vegas, was 13th in the 1994 and 1995 world tournaments. He was Indiana junior boys champion in 1987. Marie Williams won the women's title at 8-0, 52.5. * The 100th World Horseshoe Pitching Championships were contested in August at Springfield, Ill., with Alan Francis of Defiance, Ohio, winning his 15th men's Class A title, including the last eight. |
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